Barry Windham

Barry Clinton Windham (born July 4, 1960) is an American retired professional wrestler.

The son of wrestler Blackjack Mulligan, he is best known for his appearances with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

In NWA/WCW, he was a one-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, a one-time United States Heavyweight Champion, a one-time Television Champion, a one-time Western States Heritage Champion, a four-time NWA (Mid Atlantic)/WCW World Tag Team Champion and a one-time NWA United States Tag Team Champion with Ron Garvin.

In the WWF, he was a two-time World Tag Team Champion with his brother-in-law, Mike Rotunda.

He debuted on November 27, 1979 against J.J. Dillon in San Angelo, Texas when he was 19 years old.

Much of his early career was in the NWA's Championship Wrestling from Florida territory where Gordon Solie was the head announcer.

He was a fan favorite for most of the early and middle periods of his career, having great success in singles and tag action.

Windham had notable feuds with Kevin Sullivan and his army.

With his brother-in-law Mike Rotunda, Windham formed a tag team in 1984.

The duo captured the NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship three times between March and May 1984.

Rotunda and Windham were signed by World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in October 1984.

They debuted in WWF as babyfaces on the November 17, 1984 edition of Maple Leaf Wrestling defeating Mohammed Saad and Bobby Bass.

Their tag team was named "The U.S. Express".

They quickly made impact in WWF's tag team division as they beat North South Connection (Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis) for their first WWF Tag Team Championship on January 21, 1985, at a house show in Hartford, CT.

At the first-ever WrestleMania, US Express dropped the titles to The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff.

On the July 13 edition of Championship Wrestling, they beat Sheik and Volkoff for their second and final WWF Tag Team Championship, which they lost to Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) in Philadelphia at The Spectrum on August 24.

After departing from the WWF, Windham worked in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s territory Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) as a babyface, where most notably he wrestled in the main event of Battle of the Belts II for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Ric Flair, and feuded over the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship with Ron Bass.

Windham and Rotundo also wrestled at WrestleRock 86 show in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) where they defeated The Fabulous Ones.

In the fall of 1986, Windham shifted to NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) territory as a babyface where he had many memorable matches with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair.

These included matches going to 60 minute time limit draws and even some extending beyond an hour of action.

He then shifted back to the tag team division, forming a successful pairing with Ron Garvin.

On December 9, 1986, Windham and Garvin defeated Ivan Koloff and Khrusher Khruschev.

for the U.S. tag team championship.

Their biggest feud as a team was with The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane), managed by Jim Cornette.

The Midnight Express were never able to beat Windham and Garvin for the titles.

Windham and Garvin eventually lost these titles to Ivan Koloff and Dick Murdoch in the spring of 1987, shortly before the annual Jim Crockett Memorial Tag Team Tournament (also known as the Crockett Cup).

After Koloff and Murdoch were stripped of the titles, however, the Midnight Express were able to beat Windham and Garvin in the finals of the subsequent tournament to fill the title vacancy.

At this time, Windham also formed an alliance with Lex Luger, who would turn his back on Windham shortly afterward when Luger had aspirations of joining The Four Horsemen.

Rather than enter the tournament as a team, Windham and Garvin were split up.

Ronnie Garvin instead teamed up with his kayfabe brother Jimmy Garvin (Ronnie was Jimmy's legit stepfather).

Rather than have Windham partner up with someone in the tournament, he was booked to face Ric Flair for the NWA World Championship in what would be another classic match between the two.

Flair defeated Windham with a controversial pinfall after a little over 25 minutes of action.

Windham spent the rest of 1987 in midcard status.

On June 20, 1987, Windham defeated Black Bart in a tournament final to win the short-lived NWA Western States Heritage Championship, becoming first champion.

He defended the title against the likes of Rick Steiner, Big Bubba Rogers.

The title was also recognized by Bill Watts' Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF).

He began climbing up the ranks of UWF.

At JCP's first pay-per-view (PPV), Starrcade 1987: Chi-Town Heat, he lost to UWF Heavyweight Champion "Dr. Death" Steve Williams.

Windham was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame twice, first in 2012 as a member of The Four Horsemen and then again in 2024 as a member of The U.S. Express.

Windham was trained by his father Blackjack Mulligan and world champion Harley Race.